While a wide consensus has formed across the German gambling industry, political parties, and media and telecommunications associations regarding the future shape of gambling legislation, there are still clear divides on how this should be achieved.

The European Court of Justice’s recent ruling on Germany’s State Treaty on Gambling has confirmed in everybody’s mind that change is inevitable. The 2012 legislation has been dogged by controversy from the outset. After the process to award the country’s twenty sports betting licences collapsed amid a flurry of legal challenges, the ECJ pilot process has now paved the way for infringement proceedings to be launched.